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03 January 2011

House makes a move to repeal Obamacare... sort of.

Republicans in the House are planning to introduce a bill to repeal Obamacare on the first day of the new session. They aren't bothering to hold hearings or anything, and it's never going to pass the Senate, but it's important to note that it's not a "symbolic" vote as some are saying. The GOP is going to note who voted which way, forcing everyone to make a choice. Then they can hammer those who don't vote the way they want between now and the time when they (maybe) have the votes to actually repeal.

But my favorite part of the whole thing is the name of the bill: "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act."

Even as far as House bills go, this is pretty shameless. Why not just call it the "Trying to Stop the Socialist Democratic Babykilling Law Act"?

EDIT: Politico reports that the GOP is going to make an exception to their "cut-as-you-go" rule for the repeal proposal. The rule (dubbed "CutGo") is a relaxed version of the Democrat's "PayGo," which required all tax cuts or new spending to be offset by tax increases or spending cuts; the GOP version only has that requirement for new spending, permitting tax cuts to be added on to the deficit. But they're not willing to do even that much for their repeal law, so they're just exempting it from the requirement.

On an unrelated note:

“No one believes that the job-killing healthcare law will lower costs, because it won’t,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for incoming House Speaker John Boehner. “That’s why we’ve pledged to repeal it, and replace it with common-sense reforms that will actually work.”

Boehner's spokesman is Michael Steel? That must get real confusing around RNC Chairman Michael Steele.